How does the soekris 2541 compare with the chord qutest in terms of sound quality “rca”
Thanks in advance.
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I can only comment on the 1541 rca out, but I’d say that single ended, the qutest has a slight edge over the soekris overall, but balanced soekris vs se qutest they more even out. I wouldn’t say you are taking a significant quality hit using the single ended, but the xlr outs have a bit more spacious stage, more control, and a bit more technicalities imo. But again this might not apply to the 2541 since I’ve only heard the 1541
Just curious, what amp are you planning to run either one with?
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Am running a feliks audio elise as main amp.
I like a warm sound. For example the 1k rme sounds to harsh.
Thx
Gotcha, so both the qutest and older soekris lean somewhat more slightly analytical bright tbh. I personally don’t think the older soekris is that good of a pairing with the feliks stuff, but the new soekris is supposed to be more warmer and released leaning by a slight margin so that could be better. The qutest paired decently well with the feliks although it came off as somewhat dry and slightly unengaging imo
In that same range I might suggest looking at a holo cyan pcm, as that’s a pretty solid pairing with the feliks if you wanted to keep it a bit warmer smoother leaning imo
I thought I’d revive this thread for my own purposes. I’m comparing Chord Qutest vs Soekris dacs for pairing with a Violectric V281. Both seem a good match considering they are both analytical leaning. Any thoughts?
What if we throw the Bifrost 2 in the mix?
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here as the Qutest with the Cayin C9 might well be my IEM source endgame?.
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You cant compare bitfrost 2 with qutest. Bitfost2 is in way lower sigment. I ended up buying pontus denafrips
I went from bf2 to a qutest. You do gain better details and depth, but you do lose width and the timbre is actually different. The bf2 has a more natural timbre, and qutest comes off a little dry. This was with a LTA MZ2 though, no violectric
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I’ve been using the Qutest with my Bigger Ben for over a year now, and I’m very happy with it. It’s not a super exciting DAC, but it does everything very competently. I was hoping to pair the M Scaler with it sooner, but 2020 happened, so that’s still on hold for now but remains the plan. My only real problem with the Qutest is knowing that I can get more out of it once I spend another $4500. The Chord filters really don’t offer too much of a sonic difference despite their claims, but you really can hear the difference between the audio file formats. More so than any DAC I’ve owned. I still think the Mojo is the best thing Chord makes, but I’m very happy with the Qutest.
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It is funny in how our perception of things varies, I run a Qutest as a second DAC in my main speaker rig and I have an absolute preference between filters on different speakers. When running the warmer Red filter on my Heresy’s I absolutely adore the sound and really fall in love with them and what they do all over each and every time but on my Omega single driver speakers I much prefer white filter output, when using the same amplifier combo.
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Went from a Bifrost 2 to the 2541…took three days to decide. Easy decision. No looking back. I also have the iFi iDSD burr brown implementation…again stellar…love both.
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At double the price it should be a lot better though.
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Yes it should ! But I dont think honestly its not…but to me and others its “worth” it OR its just what it costs to have this piece of gear…call it vanity or just plain “nuts” !! LOL.
A lot of us in this pastime are then indeed “Nuts!”
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Talk about “nuts”…
The OG iFi iDSD dac/amp was $2749.
The new signature one is now $3249 !!!
And then it goes up even more…Holo and the other TOTL dacs…crazy. Yes for sure !
Been test listening the Soekris 2541 against the iFi iDSD Pro dac AIO.
Level set.
Fast switch using Foobar 2000 (which is excellent handling window switching between two enumerated dacs) between the two.
Using BP “filter” and BP+…after many switches with know test tracks, ie Jazz at the Pawnshop and the good ole “Limehouse Blues”…
The amp I used was the PassLabs HPA-1 and the iFI Signature iCAN pro…Final Audio D8000 Pros were the cans used.
These two dacs are VERY VERY similar…very hard to differentiate ANY real world differences. Both amazingly great dacs.
If you dont level set its easy to “think” one is “better” than another…
Tone, Timbre…depth etc…both right up there with the best I have heard…
So ask yourself…$1299 Soekris or $3249 iFi iDSD ??
Do you need the exotic upsampling or DSD re-mastering etc and the filters in the iFi?
Tubes? MQA?
You get more bells and whistles…but are they really needed??
I have both…
Intersting questions eh?
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